April 18th 2023
Chapter 108
We Color Her Day
"Mom, where are they?"
Maya lifted her head away from the sketchbook she'd been looking at... maybe a couple of seconds after she'd allowed herself a smirk. The face she presented in return was one of total ignorance.
"Where's what, pumpkin?" Standing behind her, at the top of the second floor stairs, Marianne shuffled forward until she could lean on the side of her mother's desk.
"Not what," she shook her head. "Who. Where's Dad and the others?"
"Oh, they went to the grocery store, didn't they?" Maya asked, playing very well into the role of the slightly distracted, like she'd been so consumed by her work that she was having to think hard in order to remember.
"They did not, that's tomorrow. It's my turn to go, with Mackenzie," Marianne reminded her. Ah, busted... Yes, she wasn't about to forget that. They had developed 'the system' long ago, alternating from week to week who would go along, two at a time. Next week would be Kacey and Remy, and the week after that it would be Lucy and Aubrey.
"Then I don't know where they went. Do you need me to call him to know when he'll be back?" Maya asked, rolling her stool back so Marianne could step into her long favored spot, standing before the desk to see what her mother was looking at. Once she would get there, as she did now, Maya would happily roll back up until she could look over her head. Nowadays, of course, she had to look over her daughter's shoulder, with how tall she'd gotten. But she would hug around her, and it would make Marianne happy.
"No, it's okay," Marianne told her, with a definite air of 'I'm on to you, Mother.' She was almost certain she knew where they'd be right about now, but she could play clueless, too. "Anyway, Ella's going to be here soon for piano, and until then I can stay with you and look at the sketchbooks."
"I like that plan," Maya declared, leaning to pepper her daughter's cheek with kisses, the better to hear her laughter.
"This one's really nice," Marianne decided as she observed the book open before her.
"It is, isn't it?" Maya agreed, perching her chin on her shoulder. "Which one's your favorite this year, in the freshmen?" Marianne considered the question for a moment, turned her head to the open box by the desk.
"I haven't decided yet," she told her mother, which made her chuckle.
"How very noble of you, how very..."
"Hucklebucket?" Marianne provided.
"A Hucklebucket full, full of berries," Maya informed her, and she giggled at once.
"I bet I could draw that."
"And well."
As much as they would have liked this moment to go on and on, it was brought to a swift close when they heard the door open from below, followed by the call of Ella's voice. In an instant, Marianne was sprinting down the stairs, leaving her mother to follow at her own pace. By the time she made it to the ground floor, Ella was explaining to her how Tori and Taylor would have liked to come, too, but they 'had a thing.' Marianne looked suspicious, but she soon let it go.
"I want to show you something," she instead reached out and took her big sister by the arm and led her to the piano bench.
"Is this my cue to leave?" Maya asked her daughters. They looked back at her, and Ella looked down to Marianne.
"No, you can stay. I can show you, too," she said, sounding as though she'd just made up her mind. "You can sit on this side," she pointed to the right end of the bench before moving into the middle, Ella on the left.
"So, what do you have to show us?" she asked her little sister.
"I made up a song. I started to anyway," Marianne revealed.
"You did?" Maya asked, beaming with new pride.
"Yeah, for Hallowannie," she nodded. "I was just thinking about you, Mom, when you do your song for you and Dad's anniversary, and I figured... maybe I could do that, too, but for me, for my birthday."
"That's a very good idea," Maya nodded along, as did Ella. "How much do you have so far?"
"Bits and pieces," Marianne shrugged, and Maya bit back a laugh at her estimate.
"Like what?"
"I'm still working on the words. They're not ready yet. I want to do them kind of like a story. I love telling stories."
"Well, you're so good at it," Maya agreed. "No words yet, that's fine, you've still got time."
"What about the music, is that what you wanted to show us?" Ella asked.
"Yeah," Marianne smiled.
"It might help you with your words, the more the tune sticks with you," Maya told her, and Marianne smiled like she was remembering her saying something very similar in the past, about her own song writing.
"Okay, here goes. It's not a lot, okay?" she insisted before sitting up, adjusting her posture. Her mother and her sister were both just waiting to hear what she had, so she didn't keep them waiting.
She placed her hands over the keys, and she went through her 'routine.' That was what they called it, Maya, and Lucas especially. They could practically see a checklist in her head. Sit up, hands on, check position, stop, breathe, let the music come... smile... and begin.
Maya could see very well that her daughter had had this one piece of her song stuck in her head when she started to play. It was like the thing had been a part of her all along, and now that it was played aloud, Maya was almost sure that she'd heard Marianne work it out over the last few days, the better to bring it from this thing in her mind to something she could play on her instruments. When she was done – it wasn't all that long as of yet – her posture relaxed and she looked expectantly between her sister and her mother.
"What do you think?"
"I think... I can't wait to hear the whole thing. I think it's going to be amazing," Maya side-hugged her.
"Pumpkintacular," Ella raised her chin, and Marianne gasped like it was the best word she had ever heard.
"Definitely that one," Maya laughed.
x
There was no doubt in Lucas that his firstborn would never be fooled about what they were all doing that day, but that wasn't about to stop them. They had presents to find, all for the very important ninth birthday of their favorite pumpkin of a girl.
The plan had come together just a few days ago. One afternoon, as Lucas had done the usual rounds to pick up the girls from school, on a non-group day, Marianne had realized that she'd forgotten something inside and wanted to go back. She'd been allowed to go, quickly, which had left the rest of them out by the minivan.
It had just so happened that one of the triplets' classmates had a birthday that day, and he had a big sister in the third grade who'd come to find him while all the kids had been playing outside in the morning. She'd given him her present, saying she'd wanted to give it to him back at home but hadn't had the time, so rather than waiting until school was out, she was giving him her present now. And that had gotten Lucy, Remy, and Kacey wondering about what they would do and what they would get for their sister on her birthday. It was suddenly very important to them all - and to Mackenzie after she'd heard the story and the plea - that they got to go and get something for Marianne.
Lucas was more than happy to fund this endeavor, so they soon had a plan in motion. They would all have to work extra hard and keep this a secret until the weekend and beyond, but they would go shopping together. And once Ella had been introduced into the scheme as a distraction, Tori and Taylor had come on board as co-conspirators. They, too, were looking forward to scoping out the best thing to make Marianne's day special. Alright, it would already be special by nature, being Hallowannie, but they would make it even more so.
It would be easy for Lucas to point the girls in the general direction of 'things that Marianne would love to get.' He and Maya were already in the habit of keeping their ears and eyes open for hints or ideas and keeping notes of these, for all of their girls, so they would have a good enough idea of what would make them the happiest at their birthdays, or Christmas, or on some other day where a small treat would be in order, the better to make them happy when they weren't or when something really good had happened.
It would be easy, but he didn't want that. The thought was that it would be that much better if Marianne's sisters all got to pick out the thing that they believed would be the perfect gift from them to her.
As was to be expected, unleashing several small young children on an entire mall, and telling them 'the choice is yours,' was pretty much a sure fire invitation to chaos, so while Lucas didn't flat out give them ideas, he at least did his best to direct them toward stores and parts of stores where they'd have the best chance of striking gold. This didn't entirely shut out the possibility of any one of them finding inspiration in some whole other place, so they still perused as they'd go from one place to another.
It took about three hours, but they finally came to a point where Remy, Kacey, Lucy, Mackenzie, Aubrey, and Tori had all found their thing and acquired it. Most of them had picked something that they could reasonably carry themselves, and so they did. As for the others, well, they had Lucas and Taylor to help them along there, and they both gladly submitted themselves to the assistance of their young shoppers. They were all worn out by the end. They weren't so worn out that they couldn't be up to a stop for cinnamon buns though, so that was the cap to their day out at the mall.
"What are you getting for Marianne, Dad?" Tori asked Taylor, sitting next to him. Lucas had to smirk, seeing his son-in-law's fatherly smile coming in strong.
"Yeah, what?" Lucy asked.
"Yeah, what?" Kacey echoed her. He couldn't not get her anything, not when he was their brother now.
"Well, your mom and I are sort of getting her a gift together," he explained to Tori before looking back at her aunts and their barrage of inquisitive blue eyes.
"What is it?" Remy asked, sitting up and almost dropping what remained of her cinnamon bun before Lucas caught it and tipped it back in her plate.
"Can't tell you," Taylor shook his head.
"Why?" Aubrey spoke through a giant, frosting-smearing bite.
"Because it's a surprise."
"We don't tell!" Mackenzie vowed, an immediate association to the presence of a surprise.
"Yeah, we can keep a secret," Tori insisted, sitting up and locking her arms around her stepfather's neck. "Please? Please?" she asked. Her eyes were so like her mother's, and their power was so, so very strong, but there was a greater power here, just barely.
"But I promised your mom I wouldn't tell anyone, not even you," he explained, and that was all he had to say for the girls to be left stumped and a tiny bit frustrated. He'd made a promise. Why did it have to be one of those?
"It's only a few more days and then you'll find out what it is," Lucas told them as a consolation. "And won't Marianne be so happy about everyone's presents?" That brought the smiles back around. Yes, that was what they had to remember. All of this, it was for her, for Hallowannie.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
